Category Archives: Miscellaneous

The Supply Chain Paradox

The best supply chain is invisible, but an invisible supply chain gets no recognition in your average company.

This is the one lesson they don’t teach you in Supply Chain 101, probably because they don’t want to discourage you given the upward battle we still face in our chosen discipline of Supply Management.

The sad reality is that, outside of Disney, as expertly explained in this recent post by Christopher Sciacca over on Supply Chains Rock, your average company, or at least your average employee in your average company, has no knowledge of this paradox. Just like your average person is unaware of Bernoulli’s Paradox or even the Birthday Paradox.

At a Disney theme park, the supply chain function is invisible from visitors, who never see a delivery truck or van on the premises, or shelves being restocked by employees. Visitors get the feeling that all of the food and merchandise somehow magically shows up exactly when it’s needed. Disney accomplished this by building a one-square-mile-wide labyrinth below the park’s main streets, called the “Utilidor” that feeds goods to the park attractions surreptitiously and that is stocked with a three day supply of inventory at all times to ensure merchandise is there when needed.

In a smoothly flowing supply chain, raw materials and components show up almost just-in-time (JIT) at the plant that is producing your goods. Then the boxes are waiting at the other end to package them, and as soon as the boxes are filled, the palletizer is there to pallet them. As soon as the pallets are full, the pallet jacks are waiting to load them unto the truck that just pulled up to take them to your distribution centers. Etc. Etc. Engineers don’t have to worry about raw materials or components being late or in insufficient supply. Loading dock personnel don’t have to worry about needing extra temporary storage as the trucks are there when the order is complete. Etc. Etc. Not only do they not have to worry about supply chain functions beyond their jobs, but your job looks like it’s the easiest job in the world because, like magic, everything (and everyone) is there when they need it. As a result, the better your supply chain runs, the less respect you get in an average company for doing a “hard” job because you make it look so easy.

That’s the supply chain paradox, and one of the reasons we still don’t get No Respect.

I am the Twitter!

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like fish from a whale, see the bird fly.
I’m crying.

Sitting on a hashtag, waiting for the tweet to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your tweet grow long.
I am the poster, they are the posters.
I am the twitter, goo goo g’joob.

Mister celebrity ranting,
Pretty little celebrities in a row.
See the tweets fly like texts from a teen, see how they stream.
I’m crying, I’m crying.
I’m crying, I’m crying.

Random insane drivel, dripping from a newbie’s feed.
A desperate housewife, pornographic priestess,
Now you been a naughty girl you let your secrets out.
I am the poster, they are the posters.
I am the twitter, goo goo g’joob.

Standing in an airport Starbucks … waiting for the brew.
If the brew runs out, you get your fix
From candybars at the news stand.
I am the poster, they are the posters.
I am the twitter, goo goo g’joob.

Expert textpert channel blasters,
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like whales in the sky,
See how they snied.
I’m crying.

Internet Spinal Tap, cranking up the dial to eleven.
Gary William Brolsma syncing Numa Numa.
Man, you have to see them kicking that Mark Zuckerberg.
I am the poster, they are the posters.
I am the twitter, goo goo g’joob.
goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joob.
Goo goo g’joob goo

If you’re not following the doctor on Twitter, what aren’t you missing?

This is What Tar and Feathering is For

I get disgusted when I see articles like this recent article in The Economist on how Bogus degrees from non-existent colleges cause headaches for employers.

It’s bad enough when a job candidate, who is actually a con-person, lies about a degree — either by leaving off the field or specialization of the degree in the hopes that you’ll believe an accounting degree was actually a computer science degree (as a certain high-tech CEO did) or by claiming to have a degree from a college / private institution that is no longer in business or, better yet, just had a fire and lost all the records.

But when someone sells a fake degree from a fake institution, as the nine people who stood trial in China in April did, that calls for a public tar and feathering. It’s disgusting. A degree is not only something that should be earned (which is why I also get upset when a celebrity who went to a certain institution gets a degree in something they don’t really know anything about, or the catch all Doctor of Letters degree, just because they are famous*), but something that should be certified as granting the holder a certain degree of knowledge and capability. You should be able to go to a registered, and reasonably respected, body and ascertain that the institution or individual in question had the authority to grant the degree, which conveys that whomever awarded the degree had a reasonable understanding of the knowledge required to verify that the recipient met the minimum requirements for the degree and was worthy.

And if I wasn’t livid enough after reading this point, you can bet I was ranting like a madman after reading that, in China, the really shrewd conmen have gone beyond simply selling fake degrees from fake universities, to pretending to offer real degrees from real, accredited, institutions. In one situation, a group of 68 students had been paying to attend class at what they thought was a programme affiliated with the Shangdong Institute of Light Industry (SILI). After four years they found out that everything about the programme had been a scam, and that the man behind the scheme had vanished. If you buy a degree, and get ripped off, that’s your problem. But in this case, a very enterprising conman leased a building, found some equipment, hired an instructor (who was probably qualified enough to teach the classes), and, as far as I can tell, literally offered the SILI degree program. Yes, the fake institute was not affiliated with SILI, but if the students came out of the four-year fake program with the same skills and knowledge as the students who went through the real-program, they have earned the degree as much as their peers — but because they didn’t get accepted into, and pay, the real institute, they’re screwed. In this situation, they should be allowed equivalency examinations, and get the degree if they pass, but you know this is not going to happen unless they pay the full degree cost — all over again. In this case, we not only need tar and feathering, but the walk of shame through the capital — end to end. Then comes the jail time and mandatory repayments, with damages.

Short story — don’t ever, EVER, EVER offer a fake degree or certification, because if the doctor finds out, he will make sure that the entire world knows and report you to every certification body, law enforcement authority, and regulatory body he can find the phone number or e-mail for and make sure you, or your institution, is publicly humiliated. This goes double if you offer fake degrees or certifications in Supply Management, or make false claims about what a certified or degreed individual will be able to do after obtaining your certification or degree. You have been warned!


* My readers who, like the doctor, earned their Ph.D. (and paid for it in blood, sweat, hair, and mental health) will understand!

Are you ready for the replacement for the EC Data Protection Directive?

Pretty soon, the EU will adopt a modification of the new draft regulation for a general framework governing data production to replace the existing EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC that will set out the rules on the protection of personal data processed for the purposes of police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters. There are a number of changes coming, as summarized in this recent article on “the draft regulation” over on Outsource Magazine, but the following four appear to be the most important.

  • Registration:
    a requirement for data controllers to maintain documentation of all processing operations for which they are responsible
  • Consent:
    consent from data subjects must now be explicit, and, moreover, consent will not be valid where it is the result of a significant imbalance between the data subject and data controller (e.g. employer-employee)
  • Right to be Forgotten
    which means that, in certain circumstances, data subjects can require erasure of data
  • Enforcement
    which gives Data Protection Authorities the power to impose fines on a sliding scale up to 2% of worldwide turnover for breaches.

In other words, Europe, which is (thankfully) much more progressive than the United States (as someone has to take the lead) is taking greater measures to insure that a person owns his or her data, an individual has a right to force you to delete certain data that applies to them (if you have no right to it), a data controller is fully responsible for all data they collect and (have) process(ed), and any data controller that breaches their responsibility can be levied massive fines if the situation warrants.

In other words, depending upon how much POS data you collect, especially from your on-line operation, if you are doing business in, or even with, Europe, you are (likely) subject to these regulations and if you collect more data than you need, and save that data, you could be in jeopardy of breaching the new act. It would be a good idea to review the data collected throughout the organization, summarize it, and get legal’s advice, especially if the plan is to expand (supply management) operations in Europe.